By Marisa Loranger, #CollegiateLife Editor.
“I’m going to shoot every black person I can on campus.Starting tomorrow morning,” is the message that Delta student Emmanuel D. Bowden posted recently on the social media app Yik Yak. The app allows its users to post things anonymously to other people within a 1.5 mile radius. Bowden was a full-time Delta College student in his first semester.
Lieutenant Robert Battinkoff, Delta College Public Safety director explains, “Social media is one of those grey areas where[there is] some kind of privacy expectation, but it’s not really as private as some people treat it. You’re really throwing a lot of that information out there publicly, and I think that’s one of the big cautions to take out of this.”
On Nov. 13 at 1:30 a.m., 21-year-old Bowden posted his plans on Yik Yak and an hour later retracted his statement. On Yik Yak, Bowden explains “Its [sic] a joke,” “I’m black,” “I was going to give it an hour to see how you all would react,” and “Right. I could be angry and just expressing myself lol.”
Bowden was arrested on Saginaw Valley State University’s campus the next morning by the FBI. Delta College was not involved in the arrest of Bowden.
Bowden is one of 13 Delta students currently living on SVSU’s campus. He is jailed on two cases, one for threat of terrorism and the other for credit card incidents. The credit card occurrence was unrelated to the threat and law officers were unaware of Bowden’s relationship to the case until after his arrest. Bond is set at $10,000for the Yik Yak case and $4,500 for the credit card incidents.
According to Battinkoff, Delta Public Safety has looked into screening social media. They believe that by checking social media, they can keep the school safer.
“I think it’s one of longer term plans we look at for making sure we’re a safe campus, is to at least consider doing something like keyword searches. If something like ‘bomb’ were to be in conjunction with ‘Delta College,’ I think it would be important for Public Safety to be aware of that, and to react.”
When users sign up for Yik Yak, they agree to terms such as disclosing personal information and app activity. Yik Yak has been very cooperative with similar investigations.When people’s lives may be in danger, they willingly turn over evidence, according to Yik Yak’s terms and services.
“By the time they had identified [that] the subject they were interested in was a Delta student, they already had him in custody,”explains Battinkoff.
Delta College student Rachelle Restainer was shocked to hear of the threat.
“It’s kind of scary. It’s kind of bold for him to say things like that because Delta has such a diverse community, so it’s just really weird,” explains Restainer.
If students are worried about their safety, Public Safety isalways available to talk to.
“If there is anything that makes you concerned — you can even report anonymously if you go on Public Safety’s website — let us know about and we’ll look into it. We all have the same goal:everybody here wants to have a safe experience and go home at the end of the day,” explains Battinkoff.
To access the Silent Witness form visit www.delta.edu/publicsafety/report.
